How the Kansas City Chiefs became the villains in their playoff battle with the Buffalo Bills

Posted by author January 24, 2025 NFL

Familiarity must breed contempt because the dynastic Kansas City Chiefs have become America’s antihero of pro football, triggering a groundswell of support for the Buffalo Bills to halt the perpetually reigning champs at Sunday’s AFC championship.

There’s slightly better than a 50-50 chance that the two-time-defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs will appear in their fifth title game in six seasons, much to the chagrin of football fans across the country.

Judging by social media content and sports talk phone calls, many football diehards would like to see someone other than Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and his girlfriend , Taylor Swift, reveling in New Orleans on Feb. 9.

“People are simply tired of the Kansas City Chiefs,” Rob Holub, who teaches sports management at the University of New Haven, told NBC News. He recalled how the Chiefs, not that long ago, were themselves an inspirational Cinderella story.

“America always wants an underdog and always wants a new underdog,” Holub said.

The Chiefs play host to the Bills in the AFC title game on Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. ET and are 1 1/2-point favorites to win and advance to the Super Bowl.

There are any number of justifications, real or imagined, why American sports fans would root for seeing fresh faces in the NFL title game.

Been there, done that

The Chiefs are now firmly in the villainous heel spot, long occupied by the New England Patriots and their all-time great quarterback Tom Brady.

Americans have long complained about sequels after sequels in their sports title matchups. There was a time when the NBA finals used to be exclusive territory of Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors and LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers.

Despite this alleged disdain America has for the Chiefs, there sure seems to be a lot of eyeballs on them every Super Bowl.

“There’s that whole aspect of, ‘Here comes another dynasty. Do we really need another dynasty?'” said Daniel Green, director of the master of entertainment industry management program at Carnegie Mellon University.

“But watching that team play is always fascinating. Fox (this year’s Super Bowl broadcaster), I’m sure, is hoping that the Chiefs get in because the storylines are so great,” Green said.

The 2019 Super Bowl, a 13-3 snoozer of a New England Patriots win over the Los Angeles Rams, drew 9 8.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen estimates.

In three of those four big games involving Kansas City since 2019, the TV audiences not only surpassed those numbers, but shattered records.

Kansas City drew 123.7 million Super Bowl viewers last year on CBS, becoming the most watched telecast in history. There were also 11 5 million viewers in 2023 on Fox, 9 5 .8 million in 2021 on CBS and 102 million in 2020 on Fox.

“I watch a lot of sports talk shows, and on these shows they talk about the Chiefs as if they’re like the new Dallas Cowboys. America loves to hate on the Chiefs,” said former U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, an avid football fan who has never been shy about sharing his gridiron takes on social media.

Taylor Swift reacts during the first quarter in the AFC divisional playoff between the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs on Jan. 18 in Kansas City, Missouri.Jamie Squire / Getty Images

“They got Taylor Swift , and at the last game they had Caitlin Clark too. They’re what’s popping right now,” Bowman said. “And when you go on X, dare I say that’s where the loser Twitter gangsters, who could never be cool, are there to bully people. And the Chiefs, right now, are the team they love to hate right now.”

Obviously, the fix is in for Kansas City, right?

NFL conspiracy theorists have long believed the Chiefs have friends wearing black and white every Sunday.

San Francisco 49ers fans are still bitter about a game-turning, Mahomes-to-Tyreek Hill pass in the fourth quarter of the 2020 Super Bowl . Niners pass rusher Nick Bosa appeared to be held and prevented from a sack that could have iced the game for San Francisco.

To a rational, dispassionate observer, the lack of flags on the Chiefs could simply be the result of Kansas City’s superior talent. And that the missed Bosa hold was just one stroke of luck for the Chiefs, who still needed to pull off several other key plays to complete that Super Bowl LIV rally.

Bowman, the former college football player-turned-lawmaker, said he doesn’t have a problem with the Chiefs getting some benefit of the doubt from zebras.

“Because they’re so good, they’ve actually earned some of those calls,” Bowman said. “I say some, not all, because I have seem some egregious calls (in favor of Kansas City). But no, they’ve earned that right.”

But it’s interesting to note that since Kansas City’s dynasty took shape in the fall of 2019, the Chiefs have played in 17 postseason contests. And in 14 of those games, the other team has been penalized for more yards. There have been more yellow flags against K.C. opponents 13 times, with one tie.

That penalty imbalance has been particularly dramatic in the past 11 K.C. playoff games, when Chiefs opponents have been hit with more flags 10 times, with one tie. And in 10 of those 11 games, K.C. opponents have totaled more penalty yards.

“Yeah, that data — that data’s not helping” dispel conspiracy theories, said Nicolette Aduama, the senior associate director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston.

“I mean, then we could have the NFL disprove them, but I don’t know that they feel like that’s their burden.”

Not even football is immune to political tribalism

In this era of bitter 50-50 politics, it’s hard to find a common target liberals and conservatives can agree to dislike.

Yet the Chiefs have found a way to draw near-equal hate from both sides.

To President Donald Trump’s hardcore supporters, the Chiefs are an ultimate symbol of liberal elitism, with pro-Democratic S wift leading the way, and her pro-va c cine boyfriend Kelce close behind.

And the Chiefs are no friends to hardcore liberals, with K.C. fans booing racial unity, having field goals being kicked by archconservative Harrison Butker and cheers coming from apparent MAGA supporter Brittany Mahomes.

“You hear, ‘Oh, we just need to get back to a football league of politics being out of it,'” Aduama said. “And then we have this team which has politics swarming all over it.”

The radically divergent political forces aboard the Chiefs bandwagon have the practical impact of keeping the team front and center in public debate. And that’s good for the bottom line.

“It gets the discussion going, then it gets the meme engines going, and that gets all the algorithms going, and then magically the Chiefs are again the No. 1 search thing,” Holub said.

In another era, Green said, a player’s political leanings were largely ignored.

“Because of the immediacy of media today, it is very hard not to politicize things that maybe 20 years ago we wouldn’t even bring up,” Green said. “And I think everything seems to be seen through a lens of identity politics, for the good and bad.”

The Buffalo Bills, America’s sweethearts — for now

In the factional world of professional sports, it might be hard to find a team that has widespread sympathy and support.

If there is such a unicorn franchise, it might be the “Wide Right” Bills.

Buffalo is among the 12 current NFL franchises to have never won a Super Bowl. No team has lost more Super Bowls, four, than the Bills and the Minnesota Vikings.

Buffalo’s most famous title game loss came on Jan. 27, 1991, when Scott Norwood pushed a 47-yard kick just to the right of the goalposts that would’ve won Super Bowl XXV.

But Buffalo has rebuilt itself and emerged from the NFL wilderness as one of the league’s best franchises and perennial playoff contenders, led by superstar quarterback Josh Allen.

But there’s just one, nagging little detail that prevents the Bills from achieving complete Super Bowl redemption — Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs have bested the Bills in all three of their playoff battles in the Mahomes era. When they met in last year’s playoffs, Kansas City escaped with a 27-24 win at Orchard Park as Buffalo kicker Tyler Bass missed a 44-yard kick late in regulation.

And yes, Bass’ boot sailed right.

Holub, the University of New Haven instructor, said Buffalo is clearly America’s sentimental favorite right now — though that lovable loser tag could be fleeting.

“You know what? Once the Bills win, and if let’s say the Bills win two or three more times (in the Super Bowl), we’re never going to want the Bills win ever again,” Holub laughed. “I think ‘fickle’ is a fantastic word for it. We always want something new and shiny, a new and shiny underdog every time.”